§ 35. Mr. Boydenasked the Minister of Labour in which areas of the United Kingdom the percentage of school leavers accepted as apprentices during 1959 fell appreciably below the national average.
§ Mr. P. ThomasIn Wales and the Midland Region of England.
§ Mr. BoydenDoes the Minister propose to carry out the recent recommendations of the Industrial Training Committee in relation to local development districts; namely, that firms already in the area should, with Government assistance, 1126 train supernumerary apprentices and, further, that firms coming to the area should receive special encouragement to set up training facilities in their factories?
§ Mr. ThomasThose suggestions, which we consider to be very interesting, will certainly be carefully considered.
§ 36. Mr. Boydenasked the Minister of Labour if, in view of the failure of nearly 5,500 boys to secure apprenticeships with the Services during 1959, he will take steps to arrange for a substantial number of apprentices to be trained supernumerary to Service requirements whilst the present difficulties in apprenticeship training persists.
§ Mr. P. ThomasThe failure was due to the boys being below the required standard. There are vacancies for apprentices which the Services would be glad to fill if applicants of the right quality were available. The question of supernumerary training does not therefore arise.
§ Mr. BoydenDoes not this point to a very considerable lack of propaganda to recruit the right types of boys? Surely, with the present pressure for apprenticeship, there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of boys who would want to do this sort of training?
§ Mr. ThomasAs I have said, the Services did offer more vacancies to boys who sat the examinations than were, in fact, accepted by the boys.